Arts Devo

Cheers, to you Arts DEVO is super excited for you! Chico Beer Week starts today (see all the fun starting on page 20), and I am so stoked that you will soon be liver-deep in barrel-aged, open-fermented, hop-infused specialty brews that will be available only during this next week or so. I won’t be enjoying any of it as I’ve chosen this month of all months to go brew-free for 30 days. My jowls and paunch are already thanking me, but all other parts of my body and soul are cursing my name. Oh well. Let me just raise this pamplemousse La Croix and offer a toast: “Drink one for me!”

Fight fire with punk rock Last time I talked about Chico’s HeartBurn Records in this space, I was singing the praises of its activist approach to releasing music, specifically its Out of the Cold compilation that came out in February and was sold to raise money for the local Safe Space winter shelter. That debut featured three local bands—The Empty Gate, Splatter Party, Sex Hogs II—contributing two songs each for a short-and-sweet blast of sweaty, punky garage-rock.

For its sophomore release, HeartBurn has gone much bigger. Label owners Josh Garcia (co-owner of Electric Plant recording studio) and Alex Kokkinakis (bassist for The Vesuvians) cast their net far and wide for Noise for Nor Cal, an 18-song benefit compilation for Northern California fire victims. The multigenre mix not only includes local acts—Michelin Embers, West by Swan, Ryan Davidson, Dying for It—but also a very impressive roster of bands from all over the West, including East Bay folk-punk jokesters Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children McNuggets, Oakland badasses Year of the Fist, and a handful of punk legends—Kevin Seconds (of seminal hardcore crew 7 Seconds) and Fat Wreck Chords mainstays Good Riddance and Swingin’ Utters.

The comp drops Sept. 15 on iTunes and at heartburnrecords.bandcamp.com, and proceeds from sales will be split between Shasta Regional Community Foundation: Community Disaster Relief Fund and North Coast Opportunities: Wildfire Relief Fund.

Bashful Charlie If you were to take a poll of Chico guitarists and ask them who among them has the best chops, I’d bet money that Charlie Robinson would win hands down. In fact, he probably taught many of them as they were coming up. Fellow local musician (and acupuncturist) James “Higgy” Lerner has been a student. And he and his brother, Kansas-based psychologist/filmmaker Stephen Lerner, recently completed a 21-minute mini-documentary on Robinson’s life—Bashful Charlie Robinson—that will be screened this Saturday, Sept. 15, at 1 p.m., at the Pageant Theatre. Robinson will be on hand for a Q&A, and will also play a few tunes. The event is free, but bring cash for CDs and vinyl of Robinson’s music that’ll be for sale.

It’s your club, Chico The Chico Women’s Club, that hub of so much of Chico’s social and cultural life, needs your help. The last phase of its remodeling is to install a massive solar array on its big roof for a new 8,700 watt solar system. The goal is to raise $20,000, so visit gofundme.com/cwcsolar and show the love for the building you love to dance, party and get hitched in.